Alrighty, I haven’t done a giveaway in a LONG while, but I was going through a huge pile of movies here and found a stack of sealed duplicates that I picked up from a Severin Films sale last year when they were clearing out their DVD section, so I ended up with a dozen or so extras. Anyway, I like surprising people at random, so yep, I’m going to gift ONE lucky reader with these discs and that person has to do nothing but wait for the box to arrive. Of course, there’s a catch or two:
One, you have to be a subscriber to the blog. Two, you need to be a US resident. Sorry about that last part, but it’s far easier and a lot less expensive to just ship a box of movies almost anywhere in the US than to deal with customs forms and the package being delayed, opened and inspected by overzealous types out there.
No, YOU’RE throwing your back out dancing around the room to this!
SO, what IS inside the box, you ask? Well, let’s just say it’s a mix of genres and leave it at that. I think there’s one kid friendly film on the mix, a few horror films, a trailer collection and other strange stuff. Everything seems to be out of production from the distributor or rights have changed hands, so jump into the pool, if you’re able to. I’ll randomly pick someone off my subscriber list and shoot an email out to that person asking if they want the movies (say yes, please) and I’ll ship out your box around the end of the week. OR, you can reply in the comments without giving out personal info and if you’re chosen, we can work out the details via email. NO, I won’t sell your info to some shady company or send you those Sea Monkeys you ordered back when you were a kid. I guess it’s just me trying to be more human than “social” or something. An experiment, if you will. Humor me and be rewarded in the process. Good luck!
When a little film called Star Wars was released back in 1977, I was one of a seeming minority who didn’t go rush out to see it. Not that I didn’t want to, mind you. There were assorted issues and I was out of the loop for a bit in my movie viewing. It wasn’t until summer 1978 when a friend of the family popped by to ask if I was interested in going to see the film, which of course, I agreed to. We arrived to the theater late, walking in on the scene where Luke and his Uncle Ben are buying C-3PO and R2-D2, so that was disappointing. But we agreed to watch the film a second time and sat through the second part of the double feature, a rather unusual science fiction film from 10 years earlier called The Terrornauts. I’m guessing that whomever picked this as a good film to show with Star Wars had never seen either movie or just thought “well, it’s also a space flick sooooo…” (or something like that). Seeing movies in Times Square was very often bizarre like that, from what I understand and recall from a few odd occasions.
It followed me home- can I keep it?
Anyway, the plot: a small team of scientists working for Star Talk, a UK-based organization dedicated to tracking signals from outer space in order to find life on distant planets, get a lot more than they bargained for when not only do they get that signal, aliens decide to yank their entire facility off the Earth and deliver it to their planet where there’s an interplanetary war about to take place. Guess who gets to stop that war with more war in the lowest budget manner (we’re talking Woolworth shower caps as a costuming option, folks). Yes, we sat through this flick just to see the other one and yes, when I told friends at school, they all laughed at me for seeing Star Wars over a year late.
The more amusing thing was around a year later, The Terrornauts started popping up semi-frequently on local TV, so I was able to introduce it to some new friends and yes, we hated it, but found plenty of amusement at the visual effects and general cheesiness of the film. At least they got in a shot that’s replicated almost exactly on the film’s poster art. On the other hand this wasn’t an interstellar epic like Star Wars or even a This Island Earth on a less than shoestring budget.There are plenty of good intentions here, it’s just that the execution is somewhat off the mark.
Ouch! (almost)
While the film is far from Amicus Productions better known films, it has it’s share of fans out there who grew up watching this on television, so nostalgia wins here. However, it’s pretty much forgotten these days, as it isn’t legally available on disc and the digital version isn’t 100 percent flawless when you can find it online. I also had the luxury back in the day to read the book the film is based on, Murray Leinster’s 1960 novel The Wailing Asteroid, which is a “hard” science fiction tale much more suited to a film with a much more robust budget. The goofy bit here is Murray Leinster is the name of the ship at the beginning of the 1978 film Starcrash, which I saw shortly after it’s release (on Times Square, of course). Yes, I’ll have to get to that film again one day in review form, but not for a while, as it’s so mind numbing and silly in a like-ably weird manner.
Anyway, this post is part of The Hammer-Amicus Blogathon IV, hosted by Barry over at Cinematic Catharsis and Gill from Realweegiemidget Reviews. I’m posting a few days early due to a few previous commitments, but make sure to pop on over to get a peek at the other posts. As for me? Well, I’ll be back sooner that later- it says so on my contract!
So, my post for the blogathon below is all done and scheduled, but WordPress weirdness mucked up the header I wanted to use and you all just have to wait until the end of the week so I can yell at the sky and attempt to re-edit the piece. (Some of you know how this goes, I hope.)- I’m taking a few days off to sort out some health issues, but I’ll pop in and throw a few sentences together just to liven the place up a bit. Have a great week or just a good one, for that matter.
Yes, I’m still here, folks. Just a bit too occupied with real life these days. Now, where were we? So, The really funny thing is, I actually found some folks to give my most awful candy to and it was quite by accident. Previously, what you got was a total surprise and I’m sure kids got what they wanted more often than not while most of the adults who picked out their own treats seemed pleased, although on a few occasions, some parental units actually asked for the “worst” candy I had because they had a kid that had misbehaved in some way and they wanted to prove that The Great Pumpkin was cut from the same fictional cloth as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or whomever. I had previously made a separate bucket for the oddball candy and usually had enough to hand out later in the evening, but one year, an elderly gentlemen popped up beside me and asked if I had any Circus Peanuts(oog) because he and his brother loved them back in the day, but his strict parents despised Halloween and wouldn’t let them go celebrate the holiday for whatever reason.
“Sometimes, you feel like a nut…”
Sometimes, a little sugar therapy goes a long way and when I told the old man that not only did I have a bunch of sealed bags of Circus Peanuts, he was welcome to as many as he wanted, he surprised me by rooting carefully through the buckets and grabbing all of the pesky peanuts, stopping every few seconds to ask me if it was OK that he was taking them. “Sure!” was my response, as I knew I’d have issues getting rid of all those so-called “peanuts” when trick or treaters would come around later in the evening. Yes, I did mention to him to go easy with all that candy, and while he cheerfully munched on a handful, he smiled and said “It’s a good thing these last forever!” and “You know, these aren’t bad STALE!” which made me gag a little, I’ll admit. The next year. I remembered to deliberately by two of three bags just for him and he was too happy that I remembered and even the Security guards didn’t mind if there was a Halloween or two with bad weather and I left a few bags in the security booth for him to pick up later. One year, I recall telling him I had a few sealed bags of candy corn left and he laughed and said “What am I supposed to do with that?” My personal (and yes, snarky) recommendation was to make some sort of “fancy” holiday candy “salad” and share it with friends, but I already have enough trouble with friends who actually follow my often bad advice, let alone nice strangers who I’ve recently met.
I’ve only been egged once while handing out treats, and it was thanks to some Catholic school punks (it’s always the “good” kids, right?), but I was more annoyed at having to rush home, take a quick shower and change than getting overly upset at some teens having a bit of stupid fun. That said, the perks of this gifty gig have outweighed the few bad spots. On a few occasions, people have surprised me with their generosity. I still recall all those free cups of coffee from the diner across the street from the park and the server from the diner who’d show up in costume and joke around with us before or after her shift. One year she was dressed as Flo from the old TV show Alice, one year she was a somewhat spectacular Bride of Frankenstein (her daughter did a great job on her hair and makeup) and she really got into the spirit of the season with her other costumes. As most of her customers were older residents, she’d sometimes take requests and dress as characters from old films or TV shows, sometimes with costume changes mid-shift. One chilly Halloween, she popped over to drop off a few orders of pumpkin pancakes with bacon (they were awesome).
You never know who you might meet…
This may be the last year I’ll be able to do this, given the current world situation (Where’s that damn asteroid? It’s a bit late, you know?). But I’ll be my normally sunny self until that day comes or I decide it’s a good year to go on an actual vacation. My doctor made me laugh a few weeks ago when he said his own kids noted he’s in his YOLO phase about a few things. Yeah, me too (sound of bones creaking and other old coot stuff)… Happy Halloween!
While there are certainly a few low budget cheap thrills to be found in this horror/mystery flick, there’s also a certain grainy “charm” to be found in 1959’s Jack The Ripper that makes it worth at least, a curious watch. It’s a mostly pedestrian affair, but not at all what I’d call a “biopic” or anything remotely close to that. In a way, it’s like cross between an episode of Quantum Leap with a transplanted New York City detective (and his modern 1959 haircut) attempting to solve the Ripper case, which gets in the way of most of the actual facts of the case. Granted, this is more of a quickie popcorn flick than anything else, but thanks to the Severin Films version, there are two cuts of the film to enjoy. One is the censored American cut and the other is the saucier foreign version that adds a bit of topless nudity and a cat fight (rowr!) scene. I picked up both versions last year (oddly, the US print cost more that the import)
Maybe half a bowl of popcorn for this?
Oh, and the film is as predictable as a hefty sneeze after snorting a handful of black pepper. There are “suspense” sequences that aren’t suspenseful, too many obvious suspects, a stalky chase through a foggy area that’s just padding between murders and so forth and so on. Not to knock the transfer quality, (he said, knocking the transfer quality), but, this is film that suffers from being far too dark in some areas and a tad too grainy in others. But if you can deal with the opening sequence, you can handle the rest. There’s a neat color sequence at the end of the American cut that kind of makes up for the near total lack of fake blood spilled in the film, but the nudity in the other cut isn’t exactly what I’d call “kid friendly”.
So, yep- this isn’t the best film of it’s type an you’re certainly not going to learn a thing here you already didn’t see in better Ripper flicks, but some will be all in on what bit of ground it does cover, unless they’re too darn picky about facts and such. As long as you go in blind, you should at least be entertained. Just don’t wear your Deestalker hat at all- you’re not going to over-roast a brain cell figuring out the killer here.
The next day, it was back to Deal$, where I purchased $5 worth of paper Halloween bags with Happy Halloween and Trick or Treat printed on them in orange and green ink, a dozen smaller plastic pumpkin buckets, four packages of Halloween confetti (bats, cats, ghosts, skulls and such; each bag came with a free pack of Halloween glitter), a few packs of giant Halloween stickers, a few glow sticks and a box of aluminum foil sheets. The previous night, I’d painted the buckets with the black enamel paint, adding large pumpkin faces to each bucket and using the orange fabric tape to cover up some misprinted text. The tape wasn’t exactly the same color as the buckets, but those Halloween stickers were quite handy in covering things up when needed.
Warning: flashy lights alert!
I dumped a bag of confetti and glitter in each bucket, then cut open four of the huge bags of mixed candy and poured the entire bags into one bucket. Then I started sorting the candy by type. Hard candy in one bucket, chocolate in another, gummy candy and small boxes of miscellaneous treats went to a third bucket. The funny thing was, there were also small sealed bags of mixed candy corn, a few rolls of Necco wafers, a lot of Smarties and (EEK!) a few sealed bags of Circus Peanuts. Those went into bucket four (the Trick bucket). Then I opened up a package of the paper bags and filled about 20 or each with a mix of every type of candy so when a bag was handed out, each person was guaranteed a little of everything. The small pumpkins were for carrying six bags each and I brought two buckets (one small, one large) to the security booth in the Oval to show to the guards on duty that afternoon.
Everything was approved, but one of the guards told me my skull mask was a bit too scary (boo!), so I pulled out one cute alternate I’d brought and got a thumbs up from him. Another more senior guard told me to just wear whatever I felt like (I’d planned to bring both masks anyway) and to just have fun. The next few days before Halloween was just me deciding what to wear and when to show up. The final outfit was a heavy orange sweater with an orange sweatshirt underneath, black sweatpants and a pair of black Chuck Taylors, plus the two masks, one of which was stored in one of the large buckets. As far as those buckets went, a few of the aluminum foil sheets went into two of the large buckets along with a few glow sticks. I’d remixed the candy selection to be a mix of everything, stuck a few sheets of foil in the bottom on top of the confetti, crinkled the foil a bit and put a few glow sticks in the bottom of the buckets so when it was getting darker, I’d use the glow sticks to give off a little extra light. The crinkled foil made for a nice effect.
Cute alert!
Halloween was the next day and I decided to head out around 1:30 PM with two big buckets of mixed candy, some loose paper bags and four smaller bag-filled buckets. The plan was to hand out filled bags and hand out empty bags to those who wanted to take a chance at picking their own goodies. I lived about three minutes away, so if I needed a bathroom break or to get more treats, it was a short walk to get home. When I got to the park, one of the security guards told me I was a bit too early, but I told him we’ll see what happens as it happens. There were smaller pumpkins loaded with paper bags of candy all set to be grabbed from a table when I returned home for a break.
Just may be a future wife.
I still remember my first “customers”. At about 1:45 or so, A dad pushing his daughter in a kid-sized wheelchair walked up to me. He wore a harness with a toddler securely strapped in. The younger child was fast asleep. “Is that candy free?” he asked. “The freest!” I responded. The security guard gave me a thumbs up (He was munching away on a bag of candy I’d given him earlier) and nodded as I handed the dad two bags of candy to inspect. He want through both bags and said “Okay, this looks fine.”, before handing one bag to his daughter in the wheelchair. She wore a pink sweater under a small puffy jacket, pink tights with big stars on them and was holding onto a plastic wand of some sort. When she got the candy, she smiled broadly and said a quiet “Thank You.”. I smiled back, leaned forward a bit to ask her name and then, *BOOP!*, she reached out and conked me on the head with the plastic wand she was holding. “Trick or Treat!” she laughed. Her dad laughed as well, as did I.
Dad then asked if I could give him an extra bag for his son, who was arriving via school bus about a half hour later, and of course, I did. I also asked if he wanted to grab a bag of candy for himself, but he declined, saying he’d swipe a little from the other bags. A few minutes later, a person dressed as a clown arrived and joined me. The security guards all knew her well and introduced us. The clown wore blue overalls with multicolored stripes, a blue shirt with stars, a blue fuzzy jacket and a huge blonde Afro wig. The first thing she did after shaking my hand was mime a big sneeze and gold colored confetti flew out of the wig, landing all over the place. “Does that every year” One of the guards said, laughing. “Oh, the team from Maintenance just loves November the first” another guard joked.
Even with all my current health issues, my favorite holiday is coming up and I’m very likely going to to once again take part in an annual Halloween candy giveaway. A few residents have been doing this for about a dozen years (some for much longer) and it’s always rewarding to see those smiling kids, some of whom have popped up over later years as teenagers and young adults to grab a bag or two of treats (or a few bags of treats). Meeting all those parents over the years has also been rewarding as I’ve found a whole lot of parents who like not having to take their kids again out unless it’s to a Halloween party they’ve been invited to later. (but not too late).
More like before midnight, honestly.
One early October morning in 2012, I went to the management office and inquired about handing out candy to kids in the complex. There was yes, a full background check.They also checked my state and city ID and address to see if I was a resident here. The process took about a half hour or so but it gave some of the staff something else to do other than whatever other tasks they did. Then, a security officer went over a few basic ground rules with me. I had to be inside the Oval area (an outdoor oval-shaped park open to residents), sit on a bench near the security booth, stand near the booth or both (the security guards were more or less protecting me from any rowdy antics). I was told not everyone celebrates the holiday and to be respectful and don’t “force” fun or candy on anyone if they refuse. I also had to let security search the candy I was giving out and it all had to be sealed. They also wanted to see what I intended to wear on that day. If the mask and/or costume were deemed too frightening, I’d need to have a backup handy.
I got a rock (and a roll- that’s a sandwich, right?)
The next day, I did some shopping. The first stop was Deal$, which is now a Dollar Tree ($1.25 Tree, actually), where I bought $40 worth of bagged mixed and wrapped Halloween candy and a few $1 Halloween masks, which were simple pull over the head masks with mesh faces. I bought three with skeleton faces. three with Ghostface inspired images and four cuter cartoony masks, just in case. Then I went down the street to a small thrift store and bought a few irregular orange sweatshirts (3 for $5). The shirts, I found out later just needed to be laundered and were “irregular” only because they were labeled incorrectly by the manufacturer.
Got milk?
To store the candy, I found a great deal in Summer 2011. A local hardware store had a special on what they called “DIY” Halloween buckets, which were large orange buckets, some of which were unpainted or were misprinted on one side. “How much for a bucket?” I asked. “Tell you what” the clerk said. “it’s a slow day. so buy $10 worth of stuff and I’ll thrown in two buckets for free”. That was too hard too pass up, so I asked if the store had cloth tape in orange (I needed two rolls) and some black enamel paint. The clerk (he was actually the shop owner) pulled a drawer open and and picked two rolls of orange tape out, then from behind the counter, he produced a medium sized can of black enamel paint. “Just opened this yesterday. My son painted that sign.” He pointed at a sign for the buckets. It was $11 for the tape and paint but the owner added four more buckets for a buck each. He rang me up, then wrote me a receipt on a small pad and tore off a copy, placing it, the tape and the can of paint in one of the stacked buckets. “Thanks for the business” he nodded and flashed a wide smile as I nodded back and left the shop. There was still a lot of work ahead for me…
(Trigger warning: this may get loud. Por ejemplo) :
Yup.
Life is indeed, sometimes far stranger than any fantasy. Actually, it’s 1:10pm and my brain is a bit too pooped out. Just plain tired. Like a blissful kid walking away from an empty gumball machine with a sackful of Dubble Bubble after emptying the family piggy bank, I am all spent. (I guess that makes some kind of sense?) However. I’ll admit I’m also a few pennies short of of a full roll. Brain, current time, please. (VCR fast forwards) Stop. Thanks, pal. My brain sloshes around smiling. (Yes, I know I’m talking to myself, but it’s how I’m dealing with this). Yes, I’ve got… a whole lot more issues than a planet full of comic shops.
Yup.
It’s now 3:22pm (!) and I spent that time poring over my 809 subscribers to see if a certain person (a relative) was in my readership list (Nope, and I went though that list six times just to be sure. Long story short: (and it’s a very, VERY long story). (Brain: Narrator mode, ON (*click*): For full details, please send four self-addressed stamped envelopes to: Brain! (“upstairs”: Yo!) Me: Just keep it down, please, I’m trying to finally get more work done here. (Brain: ) Today, Brain is doing a Goofy impersonation and a pretty good one). At 4:00 (Brain: 4:04!), I turned the the TV off and it was just the fan spinning, (Brain: And me?), I just wanted to simply liven things up a bit and soon found myself hunting and pecking around cable as I also poked around a bit online while gathering assorted clips and images for this post.
Yup.
At around 3:27 PM, my younger brother, came out of his room, took a shower, dressed himself and went out. I didn’t ask where he was headed, but I was a bit concerned about him and where he was going. In any event, he only went grocery shopping and returned about half (hour or so later Brain: 49 minutes!)*(Note: This will be the subject of a much longer future post, but I’ll get to that a few weeks from now).
Brrrain?(I roll my r’s), Brain:Yup? I know you’re doing Goofy, but that bit above, You’re also channeling Jack Webb, right? (I see in my mind, Brain is wearing a frilly Elizabethan collar(Shakespeare?), but also wearing a Deerstalker hat (no pipe, as I don’t smoke). I blink and it’s now wearing six different fedoras from a bunch of film noir classics. (Brain: Er, well…it seemed appropriate?)… I sigh and quickly imagine whatever people actually are or will be reading this will all disappear faster than the Great Gazoo once I hit that Publish button). But today, I’m letting the chips fall wherever they land.
Moods: more like this (although, that Ramones song below is from their LP Halfway to Sanity, which is quite ironic. To me, at least.)
a little like this, as well. Yup.
Let’s move on. Brain plays (on a huge imaginary music box) bits of: The Movin’ On theme, The Jeffersons theme, the One Day At A Time theme and a few more vintage TV tunes. My grey matter is bubbling and blazing through these clips so fast, I can’t keep up. From “upstairs”, I hear “You were thinking I should speed things up a bit because it’s getting late and you haven’t had dinner yet… Uh, hey. Can I come downstairs and watch that moo-vie with you? An idea for a segue pops up and I ask Brain to take over for a bit while I edit and add a few more videos and pictures. I think I can trust him.
(Why a music box, you ask? Back in February, I wanted to buy my mother one for her birthday and I went online and looked at quite a few before realizing I was falling into a rabbit hole over this. I just got her a card and some small gifts. Hey, I can always pick one up for Xmas)
Without warning,my playlist drops the needle on another Ramones tune:
Yup.
(Brain: Um, I’m kinda hungry, Feed me! Me: fine, give me a minute.
Okay, Audrey III! (Brain looks like a cross between a Guiana Chestnut, a Pachira plant and the carnivorous plant from 1986’s Little Shop of Horrors). I’m hungry as well.
Ya think?
I stopped writing, went to the fridge and took out the ground imported Wagyu I bought yesterday along with a few other ingredients. 14 minutes later it was a nice and done. Sitting down for the meal, my eternal playlist pumps out a few tunes as “we” eat: Trouble by Lyndsey Buckingham, Problems (Sex Pistols) What’s Going On (Marvin Gaye) and Help (The Beatles). After the meal, Brain burps a little and continues the story for a bit. There’s a slight time jump.
(Brain:)
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 6:20 PM.
Wewere watching a random action film on cable, but it was just for the noise filling the room. I mentioned TCM might have something to watch and we quickly changed the channel. Psycho was on, and the scene where Marion is selling her car was playing out, We watched the rest of the film, had a small can of iced coffee and left the television on. Hmm. Time to wrap this dead fish up while it was still relatively fresh.
Yup.
In short, I’ve got a few medical woes to take care of, but I’m sure Monday’s doctor visit will be a start of my eventual longer journey to some sort of recovery. I’d initially written much more (Brain: 9146 words), but I spent most of this week pruning that into what you’re reading today. I feel fine overall, but I’m also feeling incredibly creative. This post seems to be a “result”. so there will a few more at some point. Don’t worry about things too much. I think I’ve got a handle on this particular door.
OK, we’re still here, smoky acrid skies and all. (coughs. Thanks, Canada!) Some thoughts on the current scribbly situation along with other randomly generated ramblings:
Yes, we’ll continue to blog, albeit at a less than rapid clip than I’d prefer. The effect of pair of strokes I had a few years back have jumped up to remind me the writing process can be extremely daunting, especially when speed and quality are the issues. I have to constantly check my work, go back and edit, then reread everything before hitting that publish button or else you’d all be asking for an English translation into English or begging for me to start posting in Semaphore or Braille. Yes this takes a while to do and I hate it, but trying to rebuild a skill set is supposed to be a constant battle (at least in terms of the writer acquiring an honest, original “voice” in which to write in). Or something like that. Learning should always challenge.
That 10-yard stare makes for a common sight.
I’m also planning to reestablish connections with certain PR firms that I’ve previously dealt with (Hi there (again!) in order to receive (or get back to receiving) products to review. For a while, I was strictly purchasing products I reviewed or meant to review. But that’s gotten to be fairly expensive over the years, as I believe the “best” way to properly evaluate something is to actually pay for it while also pointing out its positive and negative aspects in a fair, unbiased (or biased in some cases) manner. “Biased”, of course, in that I’m a fan of some entertainment genres that don’t get the proper respect by too many very well-paid, freebie-loving “influencers” and “journalists” these days and I’d love to do my small part in helping raise a more positive impression of these genres. Tall order, especially in this giveaway friendly age. But it’s something I like to do as much as I can, while I still can. Granted, the current landscape is rife with those aforementioned (and extremely wealthy in many cases) types who expound on all sorts on products via a current format where some are paid to review and/or gift stuff from assorted sponsors, easily raking in hundreds to millions of fans who often rely on opinions of always raised voices and shock-tainted performances a more than actual facts. Personally, I’ve never been paid to review anything (although, a PR firm sent me a $50 Gamestop card after I’d posted a favorable review, which, by the way, had NO effect in my impressions). No one has ever told me they’d pay directly for a positive review, However, I have been asked a few times how much I’d charge to review something, or asked to review particular products primarily for some sort of payout and long term gain as other products to arrive later, but still haven’t taken that more lucrative bait.
SO Predictable (for me, at least!)
Of course, this makes me the absolutely dumbest person alive on a few fronts. But one has to have principles and mine are simple to a fault. Laugh if you must- I’ll wait. (Cue 1960’s era laugh track).
That said, I keep reading that ALL games/media writers are somewhat corrupt or in on the payola game and they all can be bought with games, movies and other free media. I suppose I’m making a point and a difference here, But someone has to reign it in at some point as it’s just making proper critical evaluation quite the dying art these days. Call me crazy, but some of the old ways and days need to make a return, purely for sanity’s sake. But that’s just me. I guess.
No, this isn’t written from the great beyond (note the date, please). I’ve just been a bit (way, no, really, WAAAAAAAAAY) too occupied, is all. I’m sure you all know the drill these days. Life, being the completely unlicensed steamroller driver it is, runs you over, then backs it up, flashing lights and all, to finish the job. Which it then repeats, no matter which street you’ve decided to cross the next day. I’ve learned to mentally carry a few hastily scribbled cartoon sound effects around for such emergencies, but it seems if if every day. SOMETHING is happening to SOMEONE and it’s less likely to be good (or even good-adjacent) news.
To add to that, all that extra baggage can (and will, trust me) lead one to be all that more under-prepared for those times when the mental load needs a required respite from the other 23.9 hours of lousy news one receives when using “social” media these days. “Socially diseased” is more like it (zing!). On one hand, all one supposes is that all one needs to do is constantly “think positively” and/or just be around to angelically post endless inspirational/motivational platitudes to combat all that negativity. Which more than likely on the other hand, just won’t work realistically with most people living online in their separate, but still shared with too many who desire you stay as miserable as they are individuals and groups. Cue segue, please? (taps fast forward button).
You KNOW you’ve had those moments…
I remember quite a long while back, my mother rolling out some sage commentary that went as follows: “Just because something is popular, doesn’t mean it’s good”. Now, if I recall, she was talking about one of my favorite TV shows at the time and I was feeling a little bit personally insulted by this at the time, as you can imagine. But I soon realized this was a healthy discourse and the internet wasn’t around to convince me otherwise. No moral here, other than wisely take a little break from things before they get too far out of hand and outside of your control. No one will miss you (much) and you get to return when you like and feel somewhat more refreshed. OK. maybe some rinsing and repeating in involved, but as they say, a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Back later with more but less moralizing on this end- I almost forgot I even had a blog for a minute until the renewal notice popped up via my inbox!
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 